CÆDMON’S HYMN

According to the Venerable Bede, in the late seventh century A.D. an angel appeared in a dream to Cædmon, a shy, uneducated man, and inspired him to compose the poem we know today as “Cædmon’s Hymn.”

“Cædmon’s Hymn” is the oldest surviving poem in English. It is Old English, and the version I am speaking in this video is the West Saxon dialect of Old English. A Northumbrian version appears in the bottom margin of Bede’s Ecclesiastical History of the English People. You can see this addition in the manuscript photo at the end of the video.

The hymn itself beautifully describes God’s creation of the universe. To watch the video, click the link above or the picture below.